Number of whitetails in state has drastically varied

Nov. 7, 2012

Written by

Francis Skalicky

Missouri Department of Conservation

Saturday is the opening day of the pinnacle event in Missouri deer hunting — the November portion of firearms deer season. The revenue that deer hunting brings into the state and the variety it adds to tables are great reminders of something many Missourians already know and appreciate: Conservation pays by enriching our economy and quality of life.

A lesser-known part of this story is the up-and-down history that deer hunting has had in Missouri.

Bison and elk made relatively early exits from the state, but deer continued to be found here as Missouri’s landscape became settled. Consider this newspaper excerpt from the Jan. 21, 1881, Doniphan Prospect-News.

“The Webb boys killed over two hundred deer during the fall and winter … have sold 4,000 pounds of venison hams. ... Three of the boys, in the last weeks of hunting, killed 46 deer, one killing 13, another 15 and another 18.”

On a local front, this indicates whitetail hunting in Ripley County was good 130 years ago. On a broader scale, though, it sheds light on the impact a hunting system that had few restrictions and minimal enforcement was undoubtedly having on Missouri deer.

A clear sign that those heavy harvests were taking their toll is the 1889 legislative action that limited deer hunting in Missouri to a bucks only. Does were to be protected until 1894.

However, overharvest and habitat destruction continued to shrink deer numbers. In 1925, a survey showed Missouri’s whitetail population had dwindled to 395 in 23 counties. That same year, the legislature closed deer hunting in the state.

One step the Missouri Game and Fish Commission took to remedy this situation made little improvement. From 1925 to 1930, 253 deer were live-trapped in Michigan and brought to Missouri. This deer, frequently called the northern whitetail (Odocoileus virginianus borealis), is larger than the subspecies native to Missouri (Odocoileus virginianus macrourus) and is the largest of the multitude of white-tailed deer subspecies in North America.

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A limited deer season was resumed in 1931 and with it came the four-point rule.

The state’s 1931 deer season consisted of hunting on the last Thursday, Friday and Saturday of October. Bucks with four or more visible points on one antler were the only legal harvest. This three-day season lasted seven years (1931 to 1937), but the harvests were hardly encouraging. The total deer taken in the seven seasons was 703. The harvest total for three of those had been fewer than 100.

As a result, deer hunting was closed by the Missouri Conservation Commission after the 1937 season.

The newly formed Missouri Department of Conservation took up the task of replenishing the state’s deer numbers. The first part of this effort was to find existing deer populations. Deer from these areas could be live-trapped and relocated. One such area was a Taney County property owned by businessman M.B. Skaggs, a site that became the Drury wildlife refuge.

In the late 1930s or early 1940s (no year is mentioned), Springfield’s Dickerson Park Zoo provided 13 deer that were relocated to Carmen Springs refuge in Howell County.

A 1944 survey placed the state’s deer numbers at 15,000. Missouri deer hunting resumed that same year with a two-day bucks-only season in 20 counties.

From this small beginning, things only got better for deer hunters. An archery season was first tried in 1946. Does became legal to harvest in 1951. In 1959, the first statewide firearms season was held.

Opportunities and deer numbers continued to expand, and today’s hunters enjoy their pursuit of a Missouri whitetail population that numbers more than 1 million deer.

Information about Missouri’s deer hunting opportunities is in the free “2012 Fall Deer and Turkey” regulations booklet, available at all Missouri Department of Conservation offices and most places that sell hunting permits.